


pretty wicked thing

by girlsarewolves



Category: Alita: Battle Angel
Genre: Backstory, Body Dysphoria, Experimental Style, Gen, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Implied/Referenced Rape/Non-con, Implied/Referenced Underage Prostitution
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-10
Updated: 2019-03-10
Packaged: 2019-10-28 14:35:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 327
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17789210
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/girlsarewolves/pseuds/girlsarewolves
Summary: once upon a time, she was a pretty and poor little girl. soot-stained and shaking from a hacking cough that, no matter what mama tried, would never go away. but then mama's options were limited - it's hard to try everything when everything has a price. street trash families were left to fend for themselves, and all too often the sick are left behind.





	pretty wicked thing

**Author's Note:**

> I haven't read the Alita manga or the novelization, so this is based purely on the movie itself and on other media I've watched/read with cyborgs. I'm assuming all cyborgs were once human, so that's what I went with for this. Feedback appreciated! :)

* * *

once upon a time, she was a pretty and poor little girl. soot-stained and shaking from a hacking cough that, no matter what mama tried, would never go away. but then mama's options were limited - it's hard to try everything when everything has a price. street trash families were left to fend for themselves, and all too often the sick are left behind. 

 

like runts in the wild, too injured or sick to survive. a drain on their mothers who have other siblings to care for.

 

but nyssiana had something mama didn't - her pretty face. rain water would wash the dirty and smudge off her cheeks, and men would notice. pout and bat your eyelashes, and they'll fawn over you. give them what the want, no matter how much you hate it, and your pretty face makes a pretty penny.

 

her body was weak though. ruined. so she started to replace those worthless pieces of meat with shiny steal, wires mingling with veins - but nothing was ever done to her pretty face. her pretty face paid the bills, her pretty face fixed her up, her pretty face kept her clothed, kept, sheltered, modified - perfected. 

 

but as much as men love a pretty face, they want more. they want weakness. they want flesh, blood - meat. soft meat to suck and bite and fuck. when they saw that there wasn't much more to her than her pretty face they ran - disgusted.

 

she was _perfect_. and they ran.

 

so she hurt them. made them see - see how perfect she was now, finally, free of the constraints of a pretty, weak body, free of the concepts of money and food and shelter and need. like a wild animal, she rooted out what was weak, and now survival came easy. there was no need when anything she wanted she could just take. there were no laws in the wild.

 

iron city was nothing but an iron jungle. mama had taught her that.

* * *

 

**Author's Note:**

> This was somewhat influenced by some of the discussion around body modification in Cyberpunk 2077 and the initial teaser/concept trailer - how the more they modify themselves, the more inhuman and prone to violence they become, sort of, disconnected from their humanity. I really got that impression with Grewishka's gang, and Nyssiana's line about wanting to see if Alita was ugly on the inside like the others. I also just wanted to explore this character some and give a little backstory, since in the movie she's presented as just 'evil killer cyborg'.


End file.
